So did the opening paragraphs of the story, fed to The Times’
Washington correspondent Eric Schmitt by US military and intelligence
officials:

Iran is building a nonworking mock-up of an American
nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that United States officials say may be
intended to be blown up for propaganda value.
Intelligence analysts studying satellite photos of Iranian military
installations first noticed the vessel rising from the Gachin shipyard,
near Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf, last summer. The ship has the
same distinctive shape and style of the Navy’s Nimitz-class carriers, as
well as the Nimitz’s number 68 neatly painted in white near the bow.
Mock aircraft can be seen on the flight deck.

Schmitt reassured readers that this was not a “real” Iranian ship
ready to challenge the US Navy — “Intelligence officials do not believe
that Iran is capable of building an actual aircraft carrier” — but his
military sources played up the drama and Iran’s devious plans: